As Scott Walker and Tom Barrett fight their way through a historic gubernatorial recall election, the Journal Sentinel has been following the candidates on the campaign trail. A new documentary, The Choice, explores Wisconsin's political upheaval, the stakes in the June 5 election and the candidates' records and styles.

Madison - The recall election will be over June 5, but its shadow could stretch for years.

Voters will have to decide whether to support Gov. Scott Walker or to dump him from office after less than a year and a half in favor of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the candidate they rejected for the job in 2010. On jobs, taxes, education, health care and unions, the candidates are already marking out positions that differ sharply.

Brett Healy, president of the conservative think tank the MacIver Institute, says the fundamental difference between the candidates is that Barrett hasn't said how he would have budgeted differently from Walker.

"It's a fundamental question that should be part of this debate," Healy said.

David Riemer, a former top administrative and budget officer for Democrats in both the state and the city of Milwaukee, said the difference is that Walker is focused on holding down or cutting taxes and helping corporations to the exclusion of all other concerns, such as the quality of public services.

"The basic difference is between someone who has a balanced approach to government and someone who has one thing to say," said Riemer, who also ran unsuccessfully against Walker while he was still county executive.

In his own words, Walker talks about the role of government by emphasizing limits on it.

"Government is there to do things that we can't do on our own," Walker said. "For the most part, it's supposed to stay out of our lives. It's why the state constitution here in our state says modesty and frugality in government leads to freedom and prosperity."

For his part, Barrett sees state government as also creating opportunities.

"Government is there to make sure we protect our liberties, that we have public safety, education . . . roads, transportation," Barrett said. "It's to make sure we have a civilized society where everyone has an opportunity and people are respected."

Here's a breakdown on the differences between the candidates:

JOBS

Walker passed a series of bills focused on the state's economic climate in January 2011, including a measure to limit liability lawsuits and another bill to turn the state Department of Commerce into the quasi-public Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.

Walker said he wants to hold down costs for businesses from taxes and regulations and promote skilled workers in the labor market and good infrastructure.

Walker campaigned on creating 250,000 jobs in his four-year term and so far, according to numbers released early by his administration, the state created 23,321 jobs in 2011. A separate set of numbers that is considered an inferior measure by economists shows the state lost jobs and ranked worst in the nation last year.

Barrett has said that Walker is failing on his jobs promise and has harmed the economic climate by stirring up political turmoil and by stifling growth in renewable energy such as the wind industry.

"By starting that ideological civil war, he took his eye off the goal, which was the creation of jobs," Barrett said.

The mayor has also criticized Walker for cutting the state's technical colleges; failing to pass a bill to promote venture capital funding; and turning down more than $800 million in federal funds for a passenger rail line between Madison and Milwaukee.

Barrett has said that he's been successful in promoting jobs in a poverty-stricken community through efforts such as the redevelopment of the Menomonee Valley. Walker has responded that Barrett has failed to create jobs in the city of Milwaukee, where the labor market ranks poorly compared with other large cities.

The mayor said that, though he would work immediately on economic development, he didn't expect to seek new legislation on jobs until the Legislature returns in 2013.

TAXES

On state taxes, Walker says that with lawmakers he managed to hold them in line while balancing a $3 billion budget shortfall over two years, largely with spending cuts. Walker touts the fact that local property taxes on the median-valued home in the state have also dropped just slightly under his watch because he and lawmakers put tight limits on local government levies.

Walker and the Legislature also approved tax decreases for businesses, including for multistate corporations, and another major decrease for certain manufacturers and farmers that will ramp up in the coming years. Going forward, Walker wants to cut the personal income tax, saying that it's too high and is stifling economic growth. He did not say where he would get the money to do that.

"I'd try to do it across the board. I think if you want to have relief, you want a cross section of consumers around the state so it would have the biggest impact," Walker said.

Barrett has said he doesn't want to raise taxes beyond the levels they were at when Walker took office. He said he would look at undoing some tax cuts passed by Walker, including the business tax cuts mentioned above, since he says they've been ineffective in creating jobs. He said he would consult with businesses to ensure the changes are not unduly harmful, but he has not said which taxes he might raise.

"I'm going to be very mindful of the cost of these because they explode in the out years," Barrett said of Walker's tax cuts.

Barrett has criticized Walker's property tax caps but has not said whether he would loosen them or by how much. The mayor wants to restore tax credits for low-income families that were eliminated by Walker and Republican lawmakers, saying the governor broke his no tax increase pledge to the neediest families.

He has not said where he would get the money to do that.

EDUCATION, LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

To balance the budget, Walker cut roughly $1.3 billion over two years in state money going to K-12 schools, the University of Wisconsin System, technical colleges and municipal governments.

The governor also repealed most collective bargaining for most public workers and then increased their health and pension contributions, effectively lowering their take-home pay. That saved the state and local governments more than $750 million.

In the next budget, Walker said he would like to see state aid to schools rise slightly if the state budget allows it.

"It certainly wouldn't go down, and it would probably have a slight increase," Walker said.

Barrett said that it would be unlikely that he would make changes in the current budget, which goes through June 2013. But if he succeeded in boosting the economy and tax revenue, he said he would try to increase funding for schools in the next two-year budget that he would submit in February 2013.

"We don't know the dollar amount. What we're going to do between June and January is create jobs in the state, and it's our hope in January we'll have a much better handle on what to do to reverse his cuts to education" and health programs, Barrett said last month.

Barrett said he would keep in place the higher employee contributions for health care and pension benefits that make up the bulk of the savings for taxpayers that Walker has touted. Barrett has achieved millions of dollars of savings of his own in Milwaukee by working to require city employees to make similar contributions, even if they weren't covered by Walker's union law.

HEALTH CARE

Walker provided about $1.2 billion more in state money over two years for the state's health care programs for the needy. But that wasn't enough to keep pace with rising costs, so the administration also made cuts to the BadgerCare Plus program taking effect July 1. Those cuts will lead to sharply higher premiums for tens of thousands of participants and more than 17,000 leaving the program or being turned away.

Barrett has said that he wants to undo those changes before they take effect. But said he doesn't yet know what changes that would take by lawmakers or where he would get the money.

On the federal health care law, Walker has suspended work on and returned a $38 million grant to plan for implementing an exchange in Wisconsin where consumers and small businesses could buy health insurance, in some cases with a federal subsidy. If Wisconsin doesn't have its own plan in place to do that by Jan. 1, 2013, the federal government could impose its own in 2014.

Barrett said he would restart the work on the exchange to make sure that Wisconsin is prepared to implement its own exchange and the state doesn't have a federal system imposed on it.

LABOR

Both Walker and Barrett said that going forward they didn't anticipate raising or lowering the increased amounts that public employees now pay for their pension and health care benefits.

Barrett has said he wants to restore union bargaining for public employees that was repealed by Walker and Republican lawmakers. He said he was focused on that and hadn't considered what to do about cases where the repeal of union bargaining has allowed the state to save on overtime costs or allowed schools to save money by bidding out their health insurance.

Walker has been adamant that those changes have been good for taxpayers.

Democrats have questioned whether Walker wants to make Wisconsin a right-to-work state in which employees in private companies could not be required to pay union dues. Walker has said he would do "everything in my power" to prevent a right-to-work bill from reaching his desk but has not said whether he would sign it.

Barrett has said he opposes right-to-work legislation and would veto it.

Bill Glauber of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

About Jason Stein

Jason Stein covers the state Capitol and is the author with his colleague Patrick Marley of "More than They Bargained For: Scott Walker, Unions and the Fight for Wisconsin." His work has been recognized by journalism groups such as the American Society of News Editors, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, and the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors.